This fintech entrepreneur thinks telling a story is a must for being successful

Updated : February 21, 2019 01:00 PM IST

Founded by Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, Razorpay started as a crowdfunding platform in 2013 but soon turned in to an online payments firm, especially for startups and small and medium enterprises (SME) in May 2014.

As entrepreneurs, Mathur and Kumar faced several hurdles which included poor online reviews, glitches in the technical integration and unsatisfactory success rates due to an inefficient payment flow.

“Strategizing, communication and unequivocally to both employees as well as customer, walking around and interacting with employees and perseverance,” Shashank Kumar said on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur and leader.

Narendra Modi’s bold move of demonetising Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8, 2016, shaped up new paths for a large number of fintech companies with a large number of individuals turning to such avenues to teach themselves about the use of digital payment method.

One such fintech company that rose to prominence was that of IIT graduate-run RazorPay. Founded by Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, Razorpay started as a crowdfunding platform in 2013 but soon turned in to an online payments firm, especially for startups and small and medium enterprises (SME) in May 2014.

The story of Razorpay, as well as their founders, is that of hard work, perseverance and persistence.

Wasn’t A Cake Walk!

As entrepreneurs, Mathur and Kumar faced several hurdles which included poor online reviews, glitches in the technical integration and unsatisfactory success rates due to an inefficient payment flow.

The firm pitched the solution to several schools in Jaipur, however, none of them except one school agreed to buy their product, as they were not aware and had not witnessed the benefit of digital payments, Kumar said.

“Do your homework, be a great storyteller. Make sure you have your research in place about the investors before you approach them. It often helps to learn about their personal and professional interests,” Shashank Kumar, co-founder and chief technological officer, Razorpay, told Entrepreneur.com.

At a time when all the hard work put into the fintech startup was not bearing any success, the firm saw few startups from Startup Oasis, a Jaipur based incubation centre using Razorpay as their online payment gateway without the founders not selling them the product proactively.

What Makes You A Great Entrepreneur

“Strategizing, communication and unequivocally to both employees as well as customer, walking around and interacting with employees and perseverance,” Shashank Kumar said on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur and leader.

As they say, failure is the first step to success, Razorpay is now the second Indian company to be a part of Silicon Valley’s largest tech accelerator, Y Combinator. Marquee investors such as Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, YCombinator and MasterCard have invested a total of $31.5 million through Series A & Series B funding, Entrepreneur.com said.

"Entrepreneurs cannot afford to be content because when contentment gets replaced with complacency, one can’t really fathom!" Kumar added.